Understanding Magic
by MissAlternateUniverse
Summary: Mallory Grace wants to escape from the magical world she is part of, but all Edmund Pevensie wants to do is to go back to his. When they are thrown together in 1940's London, they both have to start facing who they really are, and what they begin to feel for each other. AU post VODT and Spiderwick Chronicles Movieverse
1. Elves and Pancakes

**A/N: Hi Readers Welcome to Chapter 1 of what is possibly going to be one of the most unorthodox Crossover Romances ever! I know that pairing Mallory and Edmund is probably unheard of, but to be honest I think that they were made for each other, and that will hopefully become apparent as the story goes on. Some people might be a bit OOC, but I've tried to stick as much as I can to the Spiderwick and Chronicles of Narnia Movieverses. This is most likely going to stay a K+ rating, but there is a chance it might progress to T in later chapters. So please read and enjoy!**

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the books or movies related to the Chronicles of Narnia and The Spiderwick Chronicles, and I definately don't own any of the characters (although sometines I wish I did...) :'(

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I woke up to the sound of birds chirping from the forest, and the smell of breakfast wafting through my open door from the kitchen below me. I got out of bed and sighed with relief: it was the first day that, for once, I had actually felt safe waking up in my own home. That might sound stupid to anyone else, but for a 16 year old girl who only recently had been plunged into a hidden world full of faeries, ogres ,goblins and sprites, all because of an ancient power her little brother had released from a book…it was reality.

It had been two weeks since Mulgurath and his minions had attacked the house, and since then most of our spare time had been spent trying to rebuild our lives after having them completely destroyed. There was also the small matter of finding and wiping out the last of the ogre's followers, which of course the daredevil of the family Jared took in his stride. Simon however wasn't so keen and still got jittery whenever he had to kill another creature, violent or non-violent, but we still loved him for that. With Jared it was awkward, because both me and Mom thought that he had grown up too quickly; he had been through stuff no 13 year old should've had to go through, and it had killed his innocence. As for me, all I wanted to do was forget about it and get on with my life. I just needed to go back to school and become normal old Mallory Grace again, with no faeries butting in on my personal business all the time.

I walked down the stairs and almost got hit by Jared, who was running down the hallway carrying a knife and a clear plastic bag full of a steaming red liquid. "Not now Mallory, I've got goblins to kill," he said before I could speak and rushed out of the door, ignoring the calls of our tired and frail mother who had just emerged from the kitchen.

"Jared? Oh bother that… Hey Mallory, come on in! Plenty to go around this morning…" I heard a slight bitterness in my mother's words, so I smiled and let her lead me into the kitchen, where Thimbletack was cooking pancakes at the hob and Simon was sitting at the table, reading a few messy notes that Arthur Spiderwick had written for the family when they had visited him for the last time after Aunt Lucinda was taken by the Silths. He looks up, acknowledges my presence, and smiles.

"Morning Mal, you should try these pancakes. They're delicious!"

"Well, I've had a lot of practice," Thimbletack said humbly before returning his attention to the pancakes, "Besides there was all that honey just lying around in your cupboard…"

I ignored the house brownie's mutterings and sat down beside my little brother, craning my neck over his shoulder to read the notes. "What do we have to do now?" I asked, helping myself to maple syrup as I did so. "Spider wick says here that in order to keep the peace lasting, we need to make a deal with the Elves" Simon shrugged as he helped himself to more pancakes.

I spluttered, sending bits of batter flying everywhere. "Elves? Where the hell are we meant to find elves?" Simon pointed to a street map which was poking out of a pile of assorted papers rescued from the Field Guide. There was a circled area just above the small dot that marked Spiderwick House, and I could just about read the words _Greensbridge Grove_ typed in small green ink.

"We're gonna have to make our way over there soon as breakfast is finished" I rolled my eyes and muttered, "I'll go get my swords," before getting up and leaving the room.

The grove turned out to be a large clearing in the middle of the forest, which surprisingly was hidden from the view of the town and the closest roads. It gave me such a large feeling of freedom and childhood that I longed to race through the long grass and lounge beneath the sun, but I remembered what we were here to do and I stood my ground. I could only watch as Simon approached the large oak tree that stood in the middle of it all, and lay down offerings of money and jewels (most of them we had found in goblin camps). My brother stood up and proclaimed loud and fiercely, "I wish to seek an audience with the Tree Elves!"

The oak seemed to split open as if it had been slit from the branches to its root. Then, appearing from the great tree came a number of tall humanoid like beings with long flowing hair reaching down to their waists. They looked a lot like the elves that I used to read about when I was just a little kid, but as they turned their heads I saw that their eyes were as cold as ice and seemed to bore their way into my head.

One of the Elves stepped forward. "We know what you want from us, Simon Grace, but we cannot grant it with just mere gems. We are far more worthy than these crude stones." He picked up a bag and threw it over our heads and into a birch tree where it burst open, shattering its contents.

"What more can you want from us?" I yelled, ignoring the warning looks that Simon was giving me. Why did faeries have to be so stupid?

The Elf looked at me and instantly his face changed into a wry smile. "It seems that you're sister has little respect for those of the faerie realm" he remarked coolly, sending shivers down my spine. I tried to supress my anger at his opinion but he began to laugh, making me want to hit him in the face.

"Look, we have had to fight goblins, pixies, trolls and loads more of your stinking faerie kind just so we could stay alive, and you're telling me I have no respect? Why can't you just get out of my life and leave me alone!"

I was suddenly hit by a massive bolt of light that seemed to shoot out of the eyes of the Elf, and I could see Simon panic and run towards me. My vision turned black, and the last thing I knew before I hit the floor was a voice, calling my name over and over again.

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**So, what do you think so far? The next chapter is going to be from the point of Edmund, when he meets Mallory for the first time. If you have any ideas PM me. Review as well please :)**


	2. A King's Duty

**A/N: Hi Again Readers! Here is the second chapter as promised :) in Edmund's POV. Enjoy and R&R please!**

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_England is dull_ I thought as I cycled through the streets of London, feeling the cold and bitter wind from the Thames hit my face. There was no colour to the world I lived in; everything around me seemed to be tinged and shaded in brown, beige or even black. The entire city might as well have been a photo hanging from a bedroom wall, as it was that blank. I sighed sadly as I headed back to my flat in Soho and tried to remind myself of when things were better, when the world wasn't so full of doom and gloom, but nothing really springs to mind. You see, England will never compare to the vast green landscapes and blue seas of Narnia, the world where I truly come from, and the world I am never allowed to return to again.

I stopped myself from crying out in anger at the thought of being denied my right to go back. It wasn't as if Lucy and I hadn't known that it would happen sooner or later; the same had been done to my two elder siblings, Peter and Susan, when they had been called to Narnia with us a few years before. If anything, though, it hurts a lot more when you know it was going to happen eventually, because I spent a lot of the time beforehand trying to convince myself that it wasn't true, but all for nothing. I was never going back, but that wouldn't stop me from remembering who I really am: King Edmund the Just and not even Aslan himself can take that from me.

I carried on cycling down the road towards the Thames. People stopped and gave me strange looks, but I was used to that by now; not a lot of people owned bikes in London, but I never let that bother me. I had bought my bike in Cambridge when I had been staying with our cousin Eustace, and I had such fond memories of the place that I couldn't let it go. So I kept it, and used it to get me to and from University every day, ignoring the comments I got from my fellow students. They were most certainly a charming bunch, the lot of them.

As I reached the Bridge and the banks of the river I took a turn to the left and skidded down so that I was cycling on a small path directly next to a sharp drop into the swirling Thames estuary. It was a shortcut that Peter had shown me a long time ago, before we had even gone to Narnia. I had to be extremely careful using it whilst on a bike as even a small bump or turn could send me flying into the river, but after dealing with the country roads of the Fens during my stay in Cambridge, I pretty much knew I was in safe hands.

Suddenly my tyre hit a pile of broken glass and I heard a large rip, followed by the unmistakeable noise of gas escaping. "Oh, bugger!" I swore as the front of my bicycle deflated and I found myself flying over the handlebars and falling onto the hard ground, bright colours blurring my vision for a few seconds. I got up and inspected the damage; my bike was completely mangled and I had managed to scrape my wrists, but at least I hadn't fallen into the river. At that sobering thought my eyes quickly flicked past the Thames, and it was then that I noticed.

There was a body floating in the river. I could see from where I was standing that it was a young girl about the same age as me, and that since she was neither pale nor bloated she was not dead, but unfortunately for her unconscious, as she was heading for a tidal pool that I knew from newspapers and tabloid pages had the power to suck a person in and keep them there until they drowned. I stood still for a moment, unsure of what to do, but I knew that if I was still in Narnia it would have been the king's duty to save his people and so out of a sudden bravery born of complete and utter madness, I dived in after the girl.

I felt a sudden rush of adrenalin as the freezing cold water hit me in the chest. I was pushed under the water and for a moment I frantically worried that I wouldn't resurface in time, but I regained my common sense and tried my hardest to swim towards the surface. I finally broke out of the river, gasping for breath as I turned and tried to find the girl. I saw her floating a few feet away and reached out for her, managing to grab one of her arms and slowly pull her away from the pool. I started to panic as I realised that I wasn't strong enough to fight against the current. I felt myself being pulled closer to the tide pool but as I almost began to lose hope I saw a rough scrap of metal sticking out of the side of the river and I jumped for it, wrapping my arms around it as I pulled the girl onto the bank, praying that I had reached her in time. I clambered up after her, and stopped as I began to take in the strange woman I had rescued from the Thames.

She was honestly one of the strangest sights I had seen for a long time! She was wearing dark trousers and a red jacket thing with a hood made of some sort of soft material, which I had never seen before on anyone local. Her hair was curly and a shade of dirty blonde and on her feet was the oddest pair of footwear I had ever seen: a bright white with some sort of black mark on them, shaped like a tick.

To my relief she began to splutter and cough, and slowly opened her eyes.

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**How will Mallory react to being in 1940's London? We'll just have to wait and see! :)**


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